On the road to ruins with a pit stop at justice city.

Sorren was bored when the Scyther had come into the guild. Chie was off doing something and Sorren wanted to work on getting the team's rank up. when the big bug had come Sorren made a deal involving doing a job on the way.

The two entered into the dark forest, a solitary beam of sunlight making it through the canopy. The Forrest was alive with cries of distant Pokemon and the smell of vegetation.

"uh, so..." Sorren began, awkwardly "Uh right We should be able to find this Leavanny without taking too much more time than going through normally. in any event I hope you are prepared to help me fight. Oh, and the name's Sorren, I don't believe we've had time to introduce ourselves."

[Enter doungeon -10]
[E:23]

Zorre looked over at his escort, musing on the events that had led him here into this shadowy forest again, despite finally making it to his destination of the Guild, he still had not formed the team he wished. He had finally made it to Grassveil but before he could enter the Guild and start his team, an ekans had approached him, the same ekans he had traded with for a reviver seed not long ago. She wanted him to go find some gravelrocks for her as she had no time to go herself. He still felt obligated to do her a favor, as she had accepted a meager apple for something so valuable as a reviver seed, and so he had agreed to go find her gravelrocks. She had suggested the monochrome ruins beyond the trees of Shadowhue, and had insisted that he go right away.

So he had went to the Guild in search of someone who could show him where the ruins were, that he might explore them and retrieve the gravelrocks the ekans had been so desperate for. He had found a strong-looking combusken, and asked his assistance, stumbling over his words as normal, and they had come to an accord, which included Zorre helping the pokemon out with a mission in Shadowhue.

"Uh right... We should be able to find this Leavanny without taking too much more time than going through normally. in any event I hope you are prepared to help me fight. Oh, and the name's Sorren, I don't believe we've had time to introduce ourselves."

Zorre blinked at the outpouring of words coming from the combusken. He was a little wary of the pokemon, Sorren being a fire type, but as uncertain as the fact made him, Zorre was not a rude or unpleasant pokemon. "Zorre, name mine be." he replied, looking out at the darkened forest casually. He had seen the mission statement, and he was nervous about going up against a leavanny, and not being able to strike first on any occasion. As a Scyther, he prided himself in his skills to hide and strike from the shadows, ensuring quicker battles, as any enemy caught off-guard was an enemy already defeated. "Team of Exploration, you on are?" he questioned the fire-type, curious about what it was actually like to be on an Exploration Team.


Energy: 22 - 10 (entrance of dungeon) = 12

"well yeah, How else would I be able to take a job? My team Is Team Titans. I guess I'm technically the leader, even though my partner has a few centuries on me." Sorren said, doing his best to ignore the odd speech pattern of his companion. "Oh, one more thing, We can't attack any Pokemon unless they attack us first. requirement for the mission."

Sorren started walking down the path, adjusting the shoulder strap of his bag. he whistled a little tune as he strolled further into the dense forest.

He wondered about the strange speech that Zorre used, was it a dialect from some tribe or some sort of mental disorder? didn't matter much, as long as he wasn't planning on writing a novel Sorren could live with it.

Zorre had to wonder how the pokemon requesting the mission would even know if they attacked first. After all, it wasn't like the pokemon was even there with them. "Know, how, the client?" he questioned the combusken. "With us, not. Following us, unless, them?" he said with an edge of humor in his voice. There was no way that an untrained towns-pokemon could follow him without his knowledge. He supposed there was the question of honor for the combusken, but it was still odd that one would be prevented from a useful skill just because the client requested that they not.

At the thought of a pokemon following them, Zorre glanced around at the surrounding forest, sniffing carefully at the air. A towns-pokemon couldn't follow him without his knowledge, true, but a feral pokemon was much more careful and practiced than a non-feral. Well, except for him, but he was a unique case of a cross between a feral and non-feral, having once been a feral pokemon and broken free of his instincts of his own volition. He eyed the combusken, wondering if the fire pokemon could sense that he wasn't completely non-feral.

"you do make a good point, but there is always more to these requests then meets the eye. For instance in the case of this mission, the client doesn't want to harm the target or his friends, he just wants to be left alone. once we face him we can't exactly say we went slaughtering through his forest to beat him up. no if we can we settle this peacefully." Sorren explained.

"If it makes you feel better, think of this like a mental training weight, something to hold you back so you can grow in different ways."

Sorren had learned his lesson about fighting in doungeons, it was best to not attack first. you had to at least give the Pokemon a chance. But he wasn't about to impose his ideology on others. that just wasn't something he would do.

They had made it a ways into the woods, they would soon come across Pokemon and/or maybe some items. Zorre seemed a bit jumpy. Sorren didn't think too much about it. but he did keep an eye on the scyther. who knows what was going on in his mind?

"you do make a good point, but there is always more to these requests then meets the eye. For instance in the case of this mission, the client doesn't want to harm the target or his friends, he just wants to be left alone. once we face him we can't exactly say we went slaughtering through his forest to beat him up. no if we can we settle this peacefully." Sorren explained.

"If it makes you feel better, think of this like a mental training weight, something to hold you back so you can grow in different ways."

Zorre hummed thoughtfully in response to Sorren's words. He didn't really understand the concept of peacefully settling a dispute. It sounded like this leavanny had been after the client ever since the leavanny was a sewaddle. A grudge like that never ended in peace, in his experience. But, who was he to make decisions for other pokemon? He would just follow Sorren's lead on this and be ready to act when the attempted peace turned into a battle, as it inevitably would. But the part about 'mental training weight' made some sort of sense to him. It would be good for him to practice his open fighting skills. There wouldn't always be chances for him to hide and strike first, and if he wasn't just as good as fighting in the open; when that day came, he would be sorely out-matched.

He was interrupted from his musings as the bushes to his right shook a little. He snapped his head towards the bush, muscles tensing in reaction, ready to jump into action if a pokemon were to jump out and attack him.

Silver carried out 3 launched of one Shadowhue Forest :

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Sorren saw Zorre take a defensive stance and followed suit. Sorren made his way forward, to find an Ariados hoarding an apple and a blast seed.

"Friend or foe?" Sorren asked with absolute authority.

The Spider hissed, guarding it's items. It was obvious it was feral, but Sorren had to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. digging his heels in, Sorren waited. the staring match was getting them nowhere, So Sorren hatched a plan.

It would be risky, and he couldn't tell Zorre about it in case the Ariados knew any speech. He sighed, relaxed his stance and turned around, walking away. If the bug wanted those items it could have them for all Sorren cared.

That's when it attacked. with the apparent element of surprise the spider lept at Sorren's back. sorren turned around, opening his mouth, letting out the ember he had been saving. The feral flailed in the air, loosing focus on it's bugbite. Sorren brought his foot out and used double kick, intending to kick the Ariados back.

...but he missed. It wasn't much of a spectacle after that. the Ariados landed on Sorren's face, still flailing. Sorren slightly panicked, but still had enough sense to take hold of the Ariados and throw it off him.

"I'm going to use focus energy, you're turn." He said to Zorre, performing the move mentioned.

[can you tell i enjoy writing action scenes? :P]

Zorre watched the spectacle with guarded interest, letting Sorren take the lead, knowing that if he had been the one to confront the ariados he wouldn't have been able to stop himself from attacking at the ariados' hissed threat. It knew some foul language, he noted, a smirk curling his thin mouth. He decided to surprise the ariados as Sorren stepped away, allowing him a shot at the spider. He growled at it in the feral language, telling it that he was going to shred it to ribbons. Unknown to him, when he began speaking the feral language, his eyes turned wild and his stance more aggressive, making him seem like nothing more than a feral as well.

He then stepped forward, slicing his blades together, focusing his energy and mind onto one thing: getting rid of the enemy threat. He then sped towards the ariados, his form blurring as he sliced at the ariados twice before backing away. The ariados glared, rushing at him and jabbing with its legs, attempting to poison him with them. He winced as several of the legs landed upon him, but he didn't feel the tell-tale shudder of poison course through him, thankfully.

He hissed, backing away from the spider, glancing at his companion. He wasn't used to this 'attack turns' thing, but he supposed it was meant to allow all Exploration Team Members a jot of experience against foes? "Turn, yours," he said, his voice lower and rougher than it had been before, his mind still locked on his feral instincts.

Sorren found that Zorre's form was rough, a lot like his used to be... but different in a very familiar way. He just coulnd't put his finger on what it was. in any event it didn't seem like he had any formal training, and that might be a problem later on.

"Alright I think this has gone on long enough" Sorren said, taking a deep breath.

He ran forward, the Ariados ran towards him in turn. It used string shot, which is when Sorren decided to release the ember he had been building with focus energy. He placed his claws in front of him, getting them nice and hot, before slicing at the ariados with scratch.

Giving it no time to retaliated he double kicked it into a tree, pinning it. He blew flames onto the beast until it fainted. he relaxed his stance as he picked up the two items that the bug had been guarding.

"I get free food and I don't have much use for a blast seed, want me to put these in your bag?" Sorren asked, brushing off a bit of string that must have gotten to him.

Zorre blinked at the unexpected offer of the items Sorren had rightfully won from the ariados. Never before had someone just... given away items to him before like that. His thoughts immediately jumped to suspicion, wondering what the combusken was trying to pull on him. His reasoning and logic fell away, the feral side of him still front and center as his blood raced from the fight they had just been in.

He scowled at Sorren. "Expect what, me from, that for?!" he growled lowly, dismissing his twisted words in favor of his fear of deception, not trusting for one second that the combusken could merely be offering the items to him for the reasons stated. His pupils dilated until they had covered his irises, his instincts fully taken over as he considered how to make the combusken pay for trying to deceive him.

"Dude, you have trust issues, but that's fine, If you don't want them then I guess I'll just leave them here. don't want to have to lug them around." Sorren said.

What was with this guy? he fought like a maniac, talked backwards, and didn't seem to belive in kindness. it's almost as if he was... Sorren smacked himself. He should have realized sooner, after all he had spent five years of his life living with them.

He contemplated bringing it up. on the one hand it would be nice to have it out in the open, on the other he hadn't mentioned it and might not like it if Sorren mentioned it. Screw it.

"You used to be feral, didn't you?" It was more of a statement and they both knew it, but sorren had got the ball rolling. "I won't judge. I've heard of plenty of pokemon that used to be feral, I think i met one once, I don't remember. anyway we 'civilized' pokemon have a concept called kindness. take it or leave it."

"Dude, you have trust issues, but that's fine, If you don't want them then I guess I'll just leave them here. don't want to have to lug them around." the combusken replied.

Zorre still looked at him with suspicion, but glanced down at the two items. A blast seed and an apple... They would come in handy later, especially if they had to fight that Leavanny. He lowered his scythes, feeling his reasoning come back as his rage faded. As the feral instincts and anger faded, guilt and shame came rushing in to replace them. Why had he acted like that to the combusken?! Sorren had only been trying to be nice.

"You used to be feral, didn't you?" Zorre looked up, fear and panic warring in his eyes. What was the combusken going to do to him now that he knew what he was?!

"I won't judge. I've heard of plenty of pokemon that used to be feral, I think i met one once, I don't remember. anyway we 'civilized' pokemon have a concept called kindness. take it or leave it." Sorren continued.

Zorre looked down at his feet, feeling once again ashamed of his actions. "Apologize, you to. Why, not know, act I. Myself, taught I, to think. Not good," he admitted, his cheeks coloring a deep green. He turned away from the combusken, unable to face what he thought was sure to be rejection and mockery.

"Don't worry about it." Sorren said, taking the turned back as an opportunity to place the items in Zorre's bag "I was kinda the same way when I first came here. everyone was so dang friendly. I was out of my element. It took me evolving to actually be able to talk to someone without stuttering."

Sorren grabbed a journal out of his bag. He turned it to a page labeled Shadowhue and wrote down ariados under the pokemon section and blast seed and apple under the item section. He stowed the book and pen quickly, getting ready to keep moving.

"anyway let's get going, you can walk and be embarrassed at the same time" Sorren said, then added under his breath "I know I have"

Zorre noticed when the combusken put the items in his bag, but he said nothing about it. He still felt shameful, but the combusken was right. They needed to get moving, after all, they were on a mission. He fluttered his wings slightly, and began to walk along the faint path. He was unsure of what to say to Sorren.

He knew that Sorren's solution of evolving wasn't going to help him at all, since he had no desire to ever evolve into his larger form of Scizor. He would never trade his scythes for those overgrown pincers, no matter if he would grow stronger or learn more moves. Besides, he already had enough trouble with fire type pokemon. He had no wish to be even weaker to fire types. Also, while he couldn't fly for very long distances or very high, he did enjoy what flying he was able to do, and he didn't want to give that up either.

"Evolution, for not me." he replied to Sorren quietly, his eyes darting along the path as he talked, looking out for any other pokemon ambushes.

"yeah but evolution would be for you if you were a blob with feet. Dear arceus I love arms. In all seriousness I didn't mean it that way, just that it took such a dramatic change for me to finally open up. I'm sure You'll do fine." Sorren said, confident that Zorre would be able to adjust, and/or get some good friends.

They had made it pretty far into the forest before sorren saw telltale signs of pokemon activity. they may have walked into a den of some sort. It was hard to tell because of all the thick foliage around them, but the tracks in the ground were well worn, and sorren had a feeling they weren't alone.

Dediles carried out 5 launched of one Shadowhue Forest :

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